


Welcome to the Jungle

by lizbeth_e



Series: Life As a Stark-Rogers [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Black Sheep in the Family, Drug Use, F/M, Family Drama, Family Dynamics, Gen, M/M, Superfamily (Marvel)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-14
Updated: 2018-07-25
Packaged: 2018-12-15 11:48:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 17,497
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11805393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lizbeth_e/pseuds/lizbeth_e
Summary: Amelia Stark-Rogers had what most would call the picture-perfect life. Born into the Avengers family, she had Captain America and Iron Man as parents, and an entire team of agents and superheroes as aunts and uncles. However, for Amelia life is not as great as it might seem. Being the Black Sheep in a Superhuman Family has its difficulties, and Amelia is just trying to survive as best as she can.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> If you like the story, it it always greatly appreciated if you can leave a comment. FYI, The first few chapters will be flashbacks to introduce the story and characters.

They couldn’t stand each other when they first met… One filled with too much arrogance and pride, the other not quite sure who he was anymore…  
Then they fought, together, as a team. A friendship formed, a bond.  
Tony learned to accept it wasn’t always about him, it couldn’t be. Steve learned who he was in this strange new time, the man he was slowly becoming not quite the man he used to want to be.  
They learned to lean on each other, accept one another’s faults and connect from it. They learned they both liked staying up late to watch Netflix after the rest of the team had went to bed (whenever they were present in Stark tower as it seemed everyone was always in and out).  
Tony loved to put Family Guy on. Steve fought against it for the longest time. It had so many references he couldn’t understand, but it made Tony laugh. And, despite the fact that Steve began to love Brian and Stewie, if it was just for the fact that he could hear Tony’s laugh alone, he would watch Family Guy all damn day.  
Tony just loved that it made Steve blush.  
They could both tell that…whatever they had, had gone past friendship. Stolen touches and glances here and there, the accidental bump in the hallway, the undeniable flirting that even the rest of the team had caught on to.  
Surprisingly enough, it was Steve who was bolder, the one to brush his fingers when standing next to Tony in the communal kitchen, or make it a point to bring him coffee when he was in his lab, just the way he liked it.  
For Tony, he was scared. Not just scared, but terrified. He was a fuck-up. A complete and total fuck-up, in every sense of the word. He failed miserably with Pepper and he couldn’t…wouldn’t let that happen with Steve.  
But Steve didn’t give up. He cared for Tony, wanted to protect him and hold him and make sure he knew just how amazing and worth every bit of love that he doesn’t think he is.  
But then… the Accords happened.  
And just when they thought they could move past it, the truth came out. Tony felt more than hurt, he felt betrayed. The one person he thought he could put his trust back in to, kept one of the most important secrets from him.  
He remembers, after the fight in the snow, just staring at Steve with what must have been the most heart-broken look he had ever given anyone. He felt stupid, pathetic for letting himself get close to someone again. He should have known nothing in his life could ever just end well.  
He remembers how his heart broke its final piece when Steve looked at him, and Tony could tell he wasn’t going to fight for him. Not him, but the lost and broken man behind him.  
“I’m sorry Tony. You know I wouldn’t do this if I had any other choice. But he’s my friend.”  
Tony stared, fighting back any tears that may have wanted to escape in that single moment.  
“I thought I was more”.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

He gave him the phone, a way to get in touch with him if he ever needed, or wanted, too. But Tony could never bring himself to call. Instead he busied himself, threw himself into the company, into Iron Man.  
And then Thanos happened. A foe so strong, so dangerous that it took the entire team, and then some, to come together and fight.  
Tony remembers the first time he saw Steve after what felt like so long. He had long hair, a beard… If Tony was being honest he would have to admit that the first thought that ran threw his mind is that the Captain looked fucking hot.  
But then he saw the lost look in his eyes, the look from a man who has been running from his choices. Steve had stood up for what he believed in, who he believed in. And in one second, all of Tony’s repressed feelings came rushing back to him like they had never left. Because they did never leave.  
And Steve… Steve would tell anyone who would listen that on that day, despite the fact that they were all about to go into a deadly mission that some may consider suicide, he had never been happier and he had never seen someone look more beautiful.  
Steve knew if he was going to go out there and fight for the world that he had just been hiding from the last year or so and maybe not come out of it alive, he was going to do so without regret.  
“Tony…can I talk to you, alone for a minute?”  
Tony glanced up, feeling more weak and vulnerable than he had felt in a long time. He wanted to say no, wanted to tell Steve to fuck off and leave him the hell alone.  
But that was also the last thing he wanted to do.  
“...sure, Cap”.  
They awkwardly shuffled to the other end of the quinjet, taking any kind of privacy, they could possibly take in such a tight place.  
“Tony…look I…”  
Tony sighed, “Cap let me just stop you right there- “  
“No!” Tony looked up at the sudden slight outburst from Steve.  
“I’m sorry” Steve quickly said, running his hand through his over-grown hair, “I just, I have to say this Tony. Please. I need to say what has been on my mind since I last saw you”.  
Tony looked into Steve’s bright blue eyes, seeing the genuine emotion within them... He slowly nodded, letting Steve know he would listen to what he had to say.  
“Tony, I hate myself for what I did to you. All I could think about was Bucky, and all I could feel was the pain and guilt that I felt that day I let him fall off the train. And to find out that he didn’t even die from the fall, but instead spent 70 years being brainwashed and tortured… You have to understand that I felt it was my responsibility to do everything in my power to make that right, even if that meant hurting the other people I had grown to care about. And the one person who I had grown to care for the most”.  
Steve took a step closer to Tony, closing the small space that was previously between them. Tony swallowed, his pulse quickening and his throat drying up.  
“Tony, I need you to know, before we go out there…”  
Steve paused, seeing the fear but also the excitement on Tony’s beautiful features. The way Tony’s brows furrowed with nervousness and impatience. The way he bit his lip every now and then, shuffled his feet back and forth, and tussled his already perfectly tussled hair.  
Oh, fuck it, Steve thought, and leaned down capturing Tony’s perfect lips in a perfect kiss.  
“…I love you” he finished, whispering the words on Tony’s lips after pulling away from the best kiss of his life.  
“I love you too, Capsicle” Tony responded, causing Steve to let out that laugh Tony loved and hated so much, and pulled him in to another kiss while the team wolf-whistled and cheered from the other side.


	2. Chapter 2

The wedding came only a few months later, as both men felt they had spent far too much time of their lives not being happy and fighting the internal battle that true love was not for them.  
It was a small, secret ceremony with only their two best friends present, the men who had been by their sides their entire lives. The rest of the team would understand, and if they didn’t then they could fuck off.

This day was about them, about leaving behind all the lost lives, loves, and arguments behind.

If you ask Steve what he remembers most vividly that day it is the over-exaggerated eye-roll from Tony as Bucky pretends to not have Tony’s ring to give to Steve in his pocket. Steve couldn’t have been happier that the two most important men in his life could put their past differences aside and both be there on one of the best days of his life.

If you ask Tony what he remembers most vividly (besides Cap’s body in that suit) was Rhodey’s constant ‘I-Told-You-So’ looks throughout the day. It would be years before Tony finally confided in Steve that Rhodey used to constantly tell him that one day the person who would tame the infamous Tony Stark would be a hot-headed blonde with a stubbornness that would rival Tony’s. Rhodey never let it go that he couldn’t have been more correct.

But they both took away from that day that this was finally it, they were finally partners, husbands, for the rest of their lives. It was no longer just about them, they were a family and they knew this marriage would be one of the hardest things they would have to work at. But they loved each other, and were willing to do so.  
They were The Stark-Rogers, and nothing was going to come in between that. 

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

It seemed as if the first two years of marriage had almost flown by, and despite the random arguments here and there, to everyone’s surprise Steve and Tony were going strong.  
The team quickly realized that the year spent away from each other after the Accords must have made both men realize how much they needed each other. 

They thought that Tony’s tendencies of self-sabotage and Steve’s hard-headed stubbornness might cause the two a marriage filled with fights and turmoil. But despite the re-occurring arguments about Tony’s long hours in the lab and lack of organization and Steve’s bad habit of interrupting Tony in their fights and tendencies to nag, the couple was madly in love and going strong.

It was a few days after Tony’s 35th birthday, however that made Tony realize that something was missing from their lives. He wanted more for his and Steve’s family, wanted to add to the Stark-Rogers name. But he knew that he didn’t want to just adopt some child that he would have no connection to. He knew that if he was going to become a father, something he battled with his whole life and knew Steve desperately wanted, that he would have to do it with his own child.

So, Tony spent most of his days in the lab with Bruce and even pulled Stephen Strange from his busy and odd schedule. And finally, after months, he was ready to surprise his husband with the best gift he could possibly give.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Tony impatiently waited for Steve to come home from his day with Bucky, having laid out the take-out Chinese food on their nice china twenty minutes ago. He knew it was only minutes past the time Steve said he would be back at the Tower, but he could barely hang on any longer. Tony was not a patient man, and his husband’s lateness was making this even that much more unbearable.  
Who cares if Bucky finally had the courage to ask Sam out on a date after years of pining, Tony thought. That doesn’t mean his husband should have to spend nearly the whole day after gabbing with Barnes about how it went. 

Finally, Tony heard the sound of Jarvis greeting Steve off the elevator, and Tony gave his husband the biggest smile when he saw him walk into the kitchen.

“Hey sweetheart”, Steve said, walking over to Tony and giving him a light kiss. Tony grabbed the front of Steve’s hoodie and deepened the kiss, too excited by his news not to. And also, anytime Steve called Tony by those old-fashioned pet names, it made Tony fall in love with his husband all over again

Steve chucked and pulled away from Tony, caressing the scruff on his face while doing so. “What’s all this?” he asked, taking a seat at the table. 

“Oh nothing, why can’t a guy just cook a nice meal for his husband for no reason? Except for the fact that I don’t cook and got take-out. And also except for the fact that I have a reason which I need to tell you right fucking now!” 

The words tumbled out of Tony’s mouth at top speed, and if Steve hadn’t learned to understand Tony when he was overly excited years ago he would have had to ask the genius to repeat himself.  
“Okay,” Steve said, chuckling again at how cute his husband was. “I’m all ears, what’s up?” 

Tony froze, forgetting all the million ways he went over in his head that he would break the news to Steve. Instead Tony just got up from his seat, walked into their bedroom and pulled out the item of clothing he had stuffed to the bottom of his sock drawer. He wasn’t going to show Steve until he knew how he felt about it, but with being at a sudden loss for words, he decided this would be easiest.  
Tony walked back in the kitchen to find a confused Steve. Tony sat back down next to his husband, and shyly handed him the item in his hands.

Steve slowly took the small item away from Tony, quickly realizing it was a piece of clothing after feeling it. Straightening it out on his lap, Steve froze when he saw the soft grey cotton onesie with the shield logo in the middle. 

Steve looked up to find his husband staring at him with a look of fear and hope in his eyes. 

“Tony,” Steve choked out, the surprise causing him to take a deep breath. “Are you trying to tell me what I think you are trying to tell me?” 

“Well… the first part of the news yes. I think I might need to explain the second part of the news”.

Steve looked up from softly caressing the soft onesie, a smile on his face as he looked at Tony. “Okay so first part, you are asking me to start a family yes?”

Tony nodded, smiling right back at the blonde beauty before him.

Steve laughed, the full-on booming, happy, over-the-moon laugh that Tony loves so much. He lightly stood up and grabbed Tony’s face, giving him, a deep kiss filled with so much love.  
When they pulled away Tony sat back, giving out a relieved laugh himself.

“So, I am going to take that as a yes to wanting to do that?”

“Yes love, of course” Steve said, lightly rolling his eyes.

“Great!” Tony said. “Great! Now for the best part of the news tonight!”

“That wasn’t it?” Steve asked, folding the onesie and putting it back on the table.

“No,” Tony said, shaking his head. “Because when I say that I want to start a family Steve, I am not talking about adopting or taking turns with my sperm and an egg donor and then your sperm. I am talking about a child that is both me and you Steve, a child that is ours”.

“…what are you talking about?” Steve asked, confused.

“I am talking about the fact that all those late nights and days off spent in the lab these last few months have led up to us being able to have a child together. Steve, I have been able to figure out how to mix the DNA’s in our sperm together to create one sperm that can create a child that is both genetically ours”.

Steve paused, taking in the information his husband was telling him. “So, you mean…”

“I mean that with an egg donor, we can have a true Stark-Rogers baby!” Tony said, cutting Steve off and standing up with excitement. 

Steve also stood up, overwhelmed with the amazing news tonight had brought. “Oh my god!” He said, running a hand through his hair.

He looked at Tony, love for the man filling his heart. He grabbed Tony by the back of the head, crushing their lips together, all the while imagining the amazing children that they would bring in to the world together. 

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

It only took about three weeks from that night of reviewing files and interviewing to find the right egg donor and surrogate. They wanted the woman who carried their child to also be the genetic mother of their child, not wanting to have too many people involved in the process.

They found a young girl in her early twenties, ambitious with goals that far succeeded her means to pay for them. After talking it over and deciding that she was the one, Tony and Steve sat her down and explained to her that if she was willing to carry and be the biological mother of their child, not only would they make sure she is financially taken care of, but Tony would get her a full ride scholarship to any school she wanted.

A week after the contracts were signed, Steve and Tony found themselves in the hospital as Adelaide was inseminated with six of their mixed sperms, three girls and three boys. Now all they had to do was wait…

… But if you told Tony to wait about anything, let alone wait to find out if he and Steve were successful in having a child, then you did not know Tony Stark-Rogers.

The six weeks leading up to getting the news not only did he make 10 major changes to the Iron Man suits, but he also upgraded Nat’s comm system, took apart Red Wing and put him back together about ten times, and designed and ordered another gray onesie, this time with the arc reactor symbol in the middle rather than the shield.

Finally, Adelaide called them to tell them she had an appointment to find out, and the day the appointment came both Steve and Tony couldn’t have been more scared.

When the doctor walked in, they subconsciously grabbed each other’s hands, Steve giving Tony’s a light squeeze of comfort. 

The doctor turned towards the three of them, giving them, all smiles as she said, “Congratulations, one of the babies took and you are pregnant!”

Tony couldn’t remember much after that, just that he was pulled into a giant bear hug with Adelaide by Steve, before Steve remembered his strength and quickly let go, checking to see if Adelaide was okay.

It was going to be a long 9 months, but he was finally getting the family he thought he never deserved. 

The 9 months went by surprisingly quickly, and on December 12th, Amelia Elizabeth Stark-Rogers was brought into the world.

Steve and Tony looked down at the little bundle wrapped in pink in Adelaide’s arms, not knowing what to do with this little human that was now all theirs.

“Alright daddies”, Adelaide said, “which one of you wants to hold your daughter?”

Both men looked at each other, and just as Tony was about to tell Adelaide to give her to Steve, his husband spoke up.

“Tony go ahead, hold our little girl”.

Tony hesitated and realized that he had never been so frightened in his life. What if he broke her? She was so small, so fragile… he didn’t know if he was able to hold something so precious and innocent without screwing it up.

As if reading his thought, Steve nudged Tony closer, “Come on sweetheart, it’s okay”.

Tony leaned forward and took the baby away from Adelaide, straightening his back and immediately changing his posture to support the extra weight. He remembered all the classes they took, and to make sure her head was supported in his arms.

He looked down at his daughter, and their daughter, and had never been so in love with someone in his entire life.

“Hi Amelia”, he whispered, tears forming in his eyes, “I’m your daddy, and this is your papa. I love you so much, okay? And I am going to make sure that you are the safest, happiest little girl on this entire planet okay?” 

Tony kept gazing into his daughter’s hazel eyes, a perfect mix of his and Steve’s, and vowed that he would do everything in his power to be the best father he could be.


	3. Chapter 3

Amelia ran full speed once the elevator doors opened to their floor, in search of her fathers. Happy sighed as he stepped into the suite, already exhausted from just picking her up from her day with her uncles.

“Pops!” Amelia screamed, causing Steve to turn around and crouch down so Amelia could run into his arms. He smiled widely as he stood, holding his daughter in his arms and she smiled happily at him.

“There’s my girl”, Steve said, kissing her on the cheek. “How was she?”, he asked Happy as he walked into the room.

“Oh, you know, the usual... exhausting”, Happy said, but there was a light smile on his face before nodding goodbye to Steve and heading back towards the elevator. Amelia had a lot of energy, and tended to exhaust anyone who she was with, but the entire Avengers and Stark crew loved her for it.

“Daddy!” Amelia then screamed out of nowhere, causing Steve to wince as she was so close to his ears. Steve looked over to see Tony walk into the room, and felt as Amelia leaned over to reach for him instead.

“There’s my princess!”, Tony said, taking Amelia from Steve and spinning her around the room. “How were Uncle Buck and Uncle Sam? Boring as usual?” Tony made a face at the end, knowing that whenever he pretended to make fun of her favorite uncles it made Amelia giggle.

Which is exactly what she did, “No they weren’t boring Daddy! We went to the park and then we got ice cream!”

“Oh, that’s nice,” Steve said, crossing his arms, “sugar right before dinner”.

“Lighten up Capsicle”, Tony said, making his little girl giggle again.

“Yeah, lighten up Pops” Amelia said, mimicking Tony. Tony laughed at the look on Steve’s face, but even Steve could not help crack a small smile.

“God, I love this kid. Look, princess me and Pops need to talk to you about something okay?” Tony said as he carried Amelia to the living room, followed by Steve. Tony say her down on his lap on the sofa, Steve sitting next to them with his body turned so he could face the two of them.

“So, Amelia, you remember Miss Adelaide, right?”

Amelia nodded, remembering the pretty lady with blonde hair that would come for a visit every now and then. Usually Steve and Tony invited her over once every 6 months or so, so she could see Amelia, but they always sent her photos too.

“And you remember how me and your Daddy told you that Adelaide helped us to have such a beautiful daughter like you?” Tony said, ruffling Amelia’s hair as he did so. Amelia once again nodded, trying to keep up with what her Daddy and Pops were telling her.

“Well,” Steve continued, giving Tony a look of excitement and nervousness as he did. He really hoped his daughter would take the news well, as he could barely contain his excitement, “Your Daddy and I have decided, with Miss Adelaide’s help, to make this family bigger and after a few months of trying, we have good news.” 

Steve paused, seeing his daughter’s beautiful hazel eyes (which Steve and Tony always loved most about her as they were a perfect mixture of Steve’s blue and Tony’s brown) stare up at him focused intently on what he was saying.

“Amelia, you are going to have a little brother”, Steve finished, himself and Tony waiting silently to see their daughter’s reaction.

“…a brother?” Amelia asked, looking to her Pops and then up at her Daddy. They both nodded, still looking at her to gauge her reaction.

“Is that okay, princess?” Tony asked after a minute of silence. He was worried, maybe they spoiled Amelia too much. I mean she did have an entire team of super heroes as her family and an entire Stark corporation of employees that fawned at her feet anytime she stepped foot into the building. Maybe she wouldn’t want to share any of that…

Tony looked at Steve, worry starting to etch into his features before he felt Amelia nod against his chest. He looked down to see his little girl smiling, her little baby teeth giving them a cute, toothy grin.  
Steve and Tony both let out a relieved sigh, smiling at each other that their family was about to get a little bigger.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

It was 9 months later, Amelia’s fifth birthday having come and gone just about 6 months ago, and Tony was pacing the hallway of the hospital about ready to tear his hair out from nerves.

Steve sighed into his Styrofoam coffee cup, caressing the soft blonde waves of Amelia passed out on the chairs they sat on, her head resting on his thigh.

“Tony please, for the millionth time sit down” Steve said, barely any energy left in him to fight his husband anymore on his annoying nervous habits.

“Sit down?”, Tony said, stopping mid pace to look at Steve as if he was crazy to even suggest the idea. “Our baby is in there, Adelaide is in there, struggling for their lives and you are suggesting I sit down?”

Steve sighed again, not wanting to argue with his husband when he was barely holding it together himself. They had been woken up with a call from Adelaide’s roommate saying she was going into labor just past midnight, but by the time they got to the hospital it had turned into a different situation. Adelaide had gone into labor almost immediately upon arrival and started having complications, causing Steve and Tony to have to wait with almost no information at all.

Right when Steve was about to open his mouth to say something, the doctor came out, and Tony almost wanted to vomit at the blood on his scrubs. 

The doctor approached them, and Steve slowly placed Amelia’s head on the chair, standing next to his husband and grabbing his hand for support. Tony squeezed back, not quite ready for the news he was about to receive.

“Well, let me start with the good news”, the doctor said, “you have a healthy baby boy”

Both men gave a huge sigh of relief, turning to each other and embracing one another in a tight hug. Steve kissed Tony on the cheek, and felt the few tears his husband had running down his face. Steve had to wipe away his own few tears, just fully realizing now how terrified he was of losing his son before he ever really had one.

Then they both remembered that the doctor had said he was starting with the good news, which meant that there was also bad news for him to give. They both turned back to the doctor, hands still intertwined, and Steve gave the doctor a nod, letting him know that they were both ready.

The doctor gave them a sympathetic look, one he had probably given hundreds of times, and then sighed. 

“Adelaide was experiencing a lot of bleeding and, once we delivered the baby, well…. We tried to control it and stop the bleeding but… Unfortunately, she didn’t make it. I’m sorry.”

There was a pause of silence, both men taking in the news and completely saddened by it. The beautiful young girl who had given them the best gifts they could ever ask for, had passed away while doing so.   
Tony rubbed his red rimmed eyes before running a hand over his beard, turning to the doctor but avoiding any and all eye contact.

“Uh, can we see him?”, he asked, not wanting to give in to the sadness of the death of the beautiful young lady who had given him a daughter and son.

The doctor nodded, starting to walk down the hallway and gesturing to the men to follow him. Steve picked up their sleeping daughter, adjusting her on his hip with her head on his shoulder. She was a heavy sleeper, and Steve was extremely thankful for that right now so he wouldn’t have to explain his and Tony’s tear-stained faces to her.

The doctor led them over to a glass window, showing into a room filled with babies in plastic, labeled baskets. The doctor pointed to the first row, the one in the far left, and Steve could just make out the sign that said “Stark-Rogers” on the label.

Both men stared in awe at their son, happy he was alive and itching with want to hold him. The doctor smiled as he walked away, giving the family a moment to themselves. Tony and Steve stared for what felt like hours, until Steve finally felt Amelia stirring awake. 

He turned to his daughter, and saw her rubbing her tired eyes awake. 

“Pops?” she asked tiredly, a little disoriented about where she was.

“Hey little girl,” Steve whispered, running his hands through Amelia’s hair. “Do you want to see your brother?”

Amelia looked at her Pops and Daddy, instantly being able to tell that they look very sad.

“…Peter?”, she whispered, still rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

“Yeah baby girl”, Steve said, the tears starting to form again as he desperately tried to stop them from falling, “your baby brother Peter is here”.

All three Stark-Rogers looked through the window at the newest member of their family, ready to finally bring Peter Stark-Rogers home.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now we are getting more into the story as Amelia gets older. As always, it is appreciated if you like the story to leave comments.
> 
> Thank you!

Two Years Later

Amelia sighed as she craned her head, trying to look out for her parents and brother in the crowd. Her Pops had told her that morning that they would be there in the auditorium to meet her at her booth for the science fair, as it started right when her classes got out, but she had yet to see them arrive.

Amelia looked behind her at the clock on the wall, and frowned when she noticed that she had already been waiting for almost twenty minutes. She turned back to her display of her project on How Different Rays of Sunlight Affect Plant Growth (her teacher specifically called her Dad to let her know she would be making sure Amelia’s project looked like a kid did it, and not a genius by the name of Tony Stark). 

Finally, Amelia heard footsteps behind her approaching and she turned around with an excited smile on her face, only for it to fall when she saw it was Happy approaching.

“Well you don’t have to look so disappointed to see me”, Happy said, ruffling Amelia’s blonde locks as he did. Amelia pushed Happy’s hands away and looked up at him, clearly upset with the lack of presence from her parents.

“Where are Dad and Pops? They said they would be here, and that they would bring Peter!” Even though they were 5 years apart and Peter was only two, Amelia and Peter were extremely close. As much as Amelia loved her fathers, she felt an even deeper love for her little brother, and really wanted him to be able to see her Science Fair today.

“They got a call, and the entire Team got called in. I was already running an errand when they called to let me know so they dropped Peter off with Pepper and they Pepper and Pete will be meeting us at the Tower for dinner”, Happy said, feeling bad for the disappointed little girl in front of him. 

This was not the first time Happy received a call from Tony or Steve letting them know they got a call and he needed to either pick Amelia up, or go to one of her events for school in their place. Last year he attended one very awkward parent-teacher meeting that he never wanted to repeat.

But having Iron Man and Captain America as parents meant that you did not always get the attention a child deserves, and Amelia was learning that the hard way.

Amelia looked down, knowing there was no point in arguing with Happy. At least he came, and Amelia did really love Happy and saw him as an uncle. But she wanted… needed her father’s there. The issue was that the rest of the world needed her fathers too.

“So, are we just going to stand here, or are you going to show me your awesome project?” Happy asked, walking over to Amelia’s board and bending down to get a better look.

“It’s just a stupid experiment about plants, it isn’t awesome”, Amelia mumbled, shuffling her feet.

“It isn’t awesome?”, Happy asked, placing a hand over his heart dramatically. “Well then I guess I should text Pepper and tell her to cancel the dessert we planned for you for completing this awesome project…”

Amelia giggled, slowly letting Happy distract her from the absence of her dad’s and aunts and uncles. “No! Don’t cancel the dessert!”

“Well then I guess you will just have to admit that this project is so good, it deserves congratulatory dessert then”, Happy said, a smile working its way onto his face knowing that he was making Amelia feel better.

“Okay, okay!”, Amelia said, letting out another giggle, “My project is awesome!”

“There’s my girl!”, Happy said, placing his arm around Amelia’s shoulders and guiding her around the auditorium. “Now let’s take a lap around the room to be nice at all these lesser projects, they did try you know, and then we will go to the Tower to see Pepper and Pete”.

Amelia followed Happy around the auditorium, laughing at his jokes and leaning in to his strong build, grateful that at least her Dad’s employees could be there for her when he couldn’t.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Later that night Amelia laid in bed, stroking the brown curls of Peter lying next to her. Amelia wanted Peter to sleep in her bed with her whenever possible, as she was extremely protective of him, and she always got her way whenever her Dad and Pops were out of town. She knew how to play the forgotten, sad child card well, and used it whenever possible.  
Hearing the door creak open, Amelia turned her head to the side to see her Pops quietly tip-toeing in the room. She leaned up a little, and Steve let out a huff when he saw his daughter lying awake next to his sleeping son.

“Amelia”, he sighed, making his way over to her side of the bed and kneeling down so that he was eye level with her. “What are you doing awake? It is the middle of the night”.

“I couldn’t sleep”, Amelia said, reaching out for her Pop’s hand and playing with the ring on his finger. She was always fascinated with both of her father’s wedding rings, and played with them whenever she could. 

Steve frowned and instantly felt bad, knowing that Amelia couldn’t sleep because he and Tony were out on a mission. Amelia used to throw horrible tantrums when they would leave, and it would be even worse when it was a Team mission and she couldn’t even go stay with Bucky and Sam while they were out.

Over the years as Amelia grew up the tantrums stopped, but Steve and Tony could always see the disappointment grow each time they had to go out and do their jobs. Unfortunately, their children did not have parents who had normal 9-5 jobs, and they never knew when they would get called out and for how long.

“I got a ribbon for the science fair, third place”, Amelia said, not making eye contact with Steve. “Miss Thomas checked my project over five times to make sure Dad didn’t have anything to do with it”.

Steve froze as his daughter’s words sunk in, completely forgetting that tonight was her science fair when he and Tony got the call in the early afternoon. 

He felt terrible, as she was so excited and nervous about her project. She wanted to impress Tony so badly by doing the project completely on her own. Amelia’s strong suit was not science or math, she got the creative side from Steve and was more of a nerdy book-worm than a scientific genius like Tony. 

She always wanted to impress her Dad whenever a project came up in her science class, and struggled to keep up with him whenever he let her help him in the lab (plus Amelia always got distracted by Tony’s classic cars when she was down there, ever since Steve made Tony move the lab to the garage once Amelia was born).

“That’s great, princess”, Steve said, trying to force a smile on his face to not let his daughter see that he clearly forgot about her big moment. “We will have to hang that up for you, Dad will be so proud!”

“Where is Dad?” Amelia asked, finally looking up at Steve. 

“Dad fell asleep on the way home, sweetie. I had to carry him in when we got here. And he is SO heavy!” Steve said, lightly tickling Amelia and causing a small smile and giggle to escape her lips. Steve smiled, and looked over at Peter, curled into Amelia’s side and fast asleep.

“Alright, it’s time for you to go to sleep okay? We will show Dad your ribbon in the morning, and you can tell us all about the fair”. Steve stood up and leaned over Amelia, tucking her back in and giving her a kiss on her head. He then leaned down and did the same to Peter.

“Goodnight sweetheart”, Steve whispered, running his finger up and down his daughter’s cheek as her eyes started to close.

“G’night Pops”, Amelia mumbled, already falling asleep as she let her exhaustion finally hit her knowing her Pops and Dad were home safe. 

Steve walked out of the room, leaving the door slightly ajar with the hallway light on. He walked the rest of the way to his and Tony’s room, seeing his husband splayed out on their bed exactly where he left him. 

Steve climbed into bed next to his husband, running his fingers through Tony’s dark locks as his thoughts ran wild. He knew the day he and Tony decided to have kids that it would be difficult with their lifestyle. But now, with being able to see the sadness and disappointment written all over his daughter’s face every time they let her down, he realized just how damaging not being there for important events would be.

With Amelia being seven and having already missed so many important moments with her that they could never get back, Steve knew that they would have to take a step back as their alter-egos and spend more time at home. 

With Peter being only two, he won’t have to experience what Amelia never should have. And maybe they still have time to make it up to their daughter too. 

Steve sighed, laying down and moving Tony over gently so that his husband’s head was resting on his chest. He would have to talk to Tony about it in the morning, knowing that asking Tony to take some time off from being Iron Man was not going to be easy, but it had to be done.

They were parents now, and their kids needed them more than everyone else did.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I realized I forgot to tell you all before that I had altered the ages of the characters at the start of the story to make them all a bit younger:
> 
> So when Amelia was born Tony was 36, and Steve was 30.
> 
> Also the other members of the Avengers will be making an appearance into the story soon :)
> 
> Enjoy!

8 Years Later

“A D- in Science and you barely scraped by with a C in Math, Amelia? Really?”  


Amelia rolled her eyes at her Dad, crossing her arms and shuffling her feet in annoyance. Tony huffed, mimicking his sixteen-year-old daughter by dramatically rolling his eyes and crossing his arms right back.  


“You are such an ass”, Amelia mumbled, looking down to further hide what she said from her fathers.  


“Do you want to repeat that, young lady?” Steve asked, using his Captain America voice. Eleven-year-old Peter hung back, watching from the hallway as he leaned against the wall as his parents and sister had one of their very many arguments in the living room.  


Despite the fact that both Tony and Steve pulled back from their alter ego’s after realizing how much they had missed from Amelia’s younger years, their eldest child had turned out to be a troublesome teen. She hated school, and nearly every other kid in it. She buried herself in books, preferring the false realities of fictional characters than having a social life of her own, and she constantly bickered with her Dad.  


Unfortunately, despite how close Amelia was to both Steve and Peter, and the rest of their super family, as Amelia got older her relationship with Tony worsened. Steve knew it was because they were so much alike in regards to their personality. Both were outspoken, sarcastic assholes with too much pride to admit their faults, and unfortunately those similarities greatly clashed with their differences.  


Tony was the extroverts of extroverts, while Amelia was about as introverted as you could get. Where Tony could drown himself in algorithms and his lab and parties, Amelia loved art and knew more about the universe of Harry Potter than the universe she lived in.  


However, Tony sometimes expected too much of his children, and even though he loved them for whoever they turned out to be deep down, he sometimes had a hard time showing that side of him. Tony feared of turning into Howard, of expecting too much out of his kids and being clearly disappointed with them when they didn’t, or couldn’t, give him what he wanted them to.  


And while Tony knew he had a tendency to act this way when it came to his children, especially Amelia, he was also far from perfect, and sometimes acted exactly like the father he grew up resenting.  


“Now Amelia,” Steve said, standing up and getting in between his husband and daughter, “while we do both take into account that science and math are not your strong suits you have to be able to get better grades than this.”  


Amelia huffed, getting frustrated with both of her fathers at this point. She looked over to her little brother, and Peter gave her a sympathetic smile back. Amelia didn’t want to admit that she had been going to her brother 5 years younger than her for tutoring on her math and science tests, but she knew her Dad would be disappointed if she brought the same grades back as last time, and all she wanted to do was hear from him that he was proud. But admitting to them that she did try to get better grades by getting help, also meant admitting to them that she still failed even with the extra help from a buy genius.  


And Amelia felt like she hadn’t heard those words from Tony in a long time, that he was proud of her. And as much as she truly loved her brother, more than anyone else on this planet, the fact that he inherited all of Tony’s genius and charm didn’t help.  


Peter was his shining light, his little mini-me. And Amelia was…. Well let’s just say unless people knew she already was a Stark-Rogers when meeting her, it was pretty easy for her to hide in plain sight.  


She was physically beautiful, having taken after Steve with her long blonde hair and gorgeous features. But with how introverted she was, and how she avoided almost anyone who was not her family, she was hidden in the crowds most of the time.  


And being in a family filled with beautiful and interesting people who also happen to have powers and/or ridiculous skills… it is pretty easy to be forgotten in the shadows.  


“I am trying”, Amelia whispered, turning away from her brother and looking back at her fathers.  


“Well you obviously aren’t trying hard enough”, Tony bit back.  


“Tony!” Steve scolded at his husband, trying to keep the peace as much as possible between the two.  


“What?” Tony yelled back, now turning to his husband. “Babe, you are trying to tell me you aren’t disappointed with these grades? Again?”  


Steve sighed, running a hand through his hair in frustration.  


“Of course, I want her to get better grades. I want a good education for both our kids. But telling them they aren’t trying hard enough is not going to help”.  


“No, it’s okay Pops”, Amelia cut in, giving her Dad a death glare. “Its what Dad loves to do right? Tell me how little I try. How much I disappoint him”.  


Tony sharply turned back to his daughter at that, looking at her with a hard gaze. He felt a mix of emotions, all of them battling it out to be the winner.  


He was disappointed with his daughter, as he knew she was much more accomplished and smart, and putting in only half the effort she was capable of. But he also felt guilt. Guilt for treating his daughter the exact same way his Dad used to treat him. Guilt for her thinking that all he thought of her was a disappointment of a daughter. And guilt for being upset with her for making him feel like his dad.  


“Amelia…” Steve sighed, not quite sure what to say to fix the situation.  


“No, she is right Steve it is okay. I mean this is our little song and dance, right?” Tony asked, looking between his exhausted husband and pissed off daughter. “I get upset with her, she hates me… this is just how it goes now, huh?”  


Amelia glared at her father, knowing exactly what he was doing as she just did the same thing herself. She hated how much she was like him. And yet she equally, if not more, hated how much she was different from him.  


“The point is, Amelia Elizabeth Stark-Rogers, is that you can hate me all you want. But I am your father, and I am telling you to cut the shit, get rid of the fucking 24/7 attitude, and fix your grades so you can actually have a decent future instead of mooching off my hard work for the rest of your life!”  


Once the words left Tony’s mouth the entire room froze, with all its occupants momentarily too shocked to properly react. However, once it set in, Tony instantly regretted what he just said to his daughter. Unfortunately, it was too late, and Amelia was already running to her room with Steve chasing after her.  


Tony looked away from where Amelia was once standing to look over at his son. Peter shook his head at his Dad, upset with the entire situation.  


“Why do you have to do that?” Peter asked, standing up from where he was leaning against the hall. “Why do you have to make the situation worse? Make her feel worse?”  


Tony paused, not quite sure the answer to the question. He didn’t want his daughter to feel bad about herself. He wanted to go after her, lay in bed with her and cuddle like they used to as he told her how proud he is of her and how much she means to him.  


But instead Tony just turned away and went down to lock himself in his lab, to have a drink and to feel like a selfish prick for not knowing how to be a better parent and talk to his kids without making them run away in shame.  


He vowed the day Amelia was born that he would make sure she was the happiest girl on this planet, and that he would never raise her like how he was raised. But it was a lot easier said than done, and Tony was realizing he was probably a lot more like his dad than he ever realized.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Hours had passed, and after Steve had given up on Amelia ever letting him into her room, he had gone down to the lab and dragged and equally upset Tony to bed.  


Peter walked down the hallway to his sister’s room after getting changed into his pajamas, and when he reached the door he did their secret knock that let the other person know it was them outside the door.  


Seconds later Amelia was opening the door for her brother, and they headed to her bed where they got under the covers and snuggled in.  


Amelia and Peter both lay on their sides, facing each other, so that they could talk before bed. This was their almost nightly ritual, one would sneak into the others room so that they could talk before inevitably falling asleep mid-sentence.  


“Sorry Dad was being an ass”, Peter whispered, making Amelia smile and let out a soft chuckle.  


“It’s cool, Pete”, Amelia said, snuggling deeper into the comforter to get warm.  


“No, it’s not,” Peter argued, “Dad is never like that with me, and it’s not fair!”  


Amelia sighed, looking at her brother who had such a different young childhood than she did. By the time Peter was old enough to remember anything, Steve and Tony had decided (albeit reluctantly on Tony’s end at first) to take a step back and only fight as Captain America and Iron Man when it was really necessary.  


Instead Bucky and Sam, who were still holding strong together but had decided kids and marriage was not for them, stepped up to the plate and took on a lot more as Falcon and Winter Soldier. And of course, there was always their Aunt Nat, who would never stop being Black Widow.  


And even though Vision and Wanda were off living their life together, when it was needed, they were always willing to help as well.  


“Peter, your relationship with Dad is different, okay? It’s not the same as mine, so he is not going to treat you the same”.  


“That’s stupid”, Peter said, not understanding or accepting what his sister said.  


“No Peter it’s not!”, Amelia said. “You are like Dad’s idea of a perfect child. You are a genius like him, and spend hours with him in the lab actually understanding what the hell he is talking about. You are funny, and charming, and outgoing. You got like the best parts of Dad, with a sprinkle of Pops, where-as I just inherited Dad’s ability to piss people off anytime I open my mouth”.  


Peter looked down at the comforter, picking a stray thread as he did not know what to say. Amelia, who sensed her brother’s loss for words and sadness at what she said, pulled Peter towards her so that his head was resting on her shoulder as they now lay on their backs.  


“It is not a bad thing Peter, and I am not upset with you about it. You just have to understand that I…connect with Dad on an entirely different level than you do. And unfortunately, that means that more than half the time we don’t connect at all. But you are like the… oh god I am going to sound so corny here, but you are truly the glue that holds this dysfunctional family together”.  


Peter craned his head to look up at his sister, who was staring up at the ceiling as she slowly started to drift to sleep.  


“Really?” Peter asked.  


“Yeah,” Amelia said, yawning a she did so. “If we didn’t have you, wed be a lot more fucked up than we already are”.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who has commented and left kudos! I really appreciate it :)

Amelia let out a small grin as she walked out of the doors and down the front steps of her high-school in to the gloomy, overcast weather. Not only was the school day over, but it was her favorite weather and there was a new episode of Doctor Who on tonight.

As she started the twenty minute walk home, where she usually stops off at Peter’s school and picks him up to walk home with him halfway, she stops as she notices one of her favorite people looking down at their phone, obviously waiting for her. 

Amelia quietly walked up to Bucky, jumping on his back and wrapping her legs around him. Bucky didn’t miss a beat, wrapping his arms around her thighs and instantly supporting her weight in his arms. 

“What’s up loser?” Amelia asked, now with a full on grin on her face. 

“Oh you know,” Bucky said, starting to walk to the Tower, still carrying Amelia on his back, “I have literally nothing better to do so I thought I might as well bug my favorite of the Stark-Rogers clan”. 

Amelia beamed, her mood instantly picking up with Bucky around. She absolutely loved her uncle, and spent as much time as possible as she could with him. When Amelia was little, she used to throw fits whenever she would leave Bucky’s place, where she would stay over whenever possible. 

“Are we picking up Peter?” Amelia asked, as they turned the corner onto the busy streets of New York. 

“Nope”, Bucky replied, popping the P. “Pete’s got a dentist appointment, so Stevie picked him up to take him”. 

Amelia nodded, vaguely remembering both of them tell her that as she was half asleep this morning. 

“So what are we doing?” 

“Training”, Bucky said, adjusting Amelia to get a better grip on her as they stopped at a crosswalk light. 

“Ugh no!”, Amelia whined, “Can’t we just like, drown ourselves in snacks and TV?” 

Bucky laughed as the crosswalk light turned and he continued his walk to the Tower. “Okay as amazing as that sounds, we have also done that the last three times we were supposed to train. I made a bet with Sam that I would not let you talk me out of it this time!” 

“You could always lie”, Amelia replied, seeing that they were almost to the Tower. 

“I wish! But somehow with Sam, he can always tell”. 

Amelia laughed as Bucky turned the last corner, the Stark Tower coming in to view. Bucky let Amelia down as they approached the elevator, and once they arrived to the Stark-Rogers suite they both went their separate ways to change into their work-out clothes and meet back in the gym. 

Unfortunately for Amelia, who despised working out, when you are the child of two well-known superheroes, you should probably be skilled in combat and defense. And for Tony and Steve this was not optional. Anytime Steve, or Bucky, or even Nat when she was around, had time they would schedule training with her and Peter so that they knew how to properly protect themselves. 

When Amelia walked into the gym Bucky was already there, stretching. Amelia joined him and when they were done they made their way over to the punching bags for their usual warm-up. 

”So,” Bucky said, throwing a hard punch to the bag as he did so, “I heard you got in another fight with your old man last night”. 

Amelia rolled her eyes as she threw her own punch, the bag flying as the emotions from last night suddenly hit her at the mere mention of her Dad. “Yup”, she simply said, knowing that of all people Bucky could relate to her the most when it came to Tony. Although Bucky and Tony fixed their relationship when he and Steve got together, they still hated certain things about one another and would bicker with each other every now and then.

”Grades again?”, Bucky asked, knowing the usual arguments that Amelia and Tony mainly had. 

”Yup,” Amelia repeated, now taking her anger out completely on the punching bag. Even though Peter and Amelia did not show t0o many signs of being affected by Steve’s serum, mainly the physical appearance aspects, they both had amazing hearing, eyesight, and were a lot stronger than anyone their age should be. 

”Okay, that’s enough. Let’s not take it out on the gym equipment, mini-me”, Bucky said, using the nickname he has had for Amelia since she was little. From the moment Amelia could walk she followed Bucky everywhere and wanted to do everything he did. So Bucky called her his little mini-me, and wouldn’t have it any other way. 

Amelia huffed as she stepped away from the punching bag, trying to calm herself down. She wasn’t so much upset with the argument itself, mainly she was upset that her and her Dad kept having arguments. She didn’t understand why they couldn’t just get along like they used to. Amelia used to love spending time with her Dad, watching movies, going for long drives in one of his many beautiful cars… Now it seemed like most days they avoided each other just so there wasn’t a fight. 

”It’s just…”, Amelia said, not really sure what the right words were. She was angry, annoyed, frustrated beyond belief. But mainly she was just disappointed. 

Bucky looked down at his niece, wishing he could fix all of her problems just to see a smile on her beautiful face. “I know”, he said, letting Amelia know he understood her without her needing to finish her sentence. He walked over to her and wrapped her in a hug, his metal arm cooling Amelia’s heated skin from her anger and work-out. 

Amelia eventually pulled away, looking up at Bucky with a smile, grateful that she could always count on him to make her feel better. 

”Okay, enough of the feels”, Bucky said, ruffling Amelia’s hair as he knew it pissed her off. “Now come on, I am just itching to kick your ass.” 

”Amelia laughed as she pushed Bucky, getting in place to…yeah most likely get her ass kicked by the Winter Soldier. 

______________________________________________________________________________________________ 

Later that night Amelia was curled up on the big living room sectional in her favorite blanket, a bag of hot Cheetos and a box of Oreos ready to go, depending on what snack she may be in the mood for, as she was not intending to leave her comfortable cocoon for the next 60 minutes. 

She was randomly looking through stuff on her Stark phone, waiting for the new season premiere of Doctor Who to start in the next few minutes, when she heard footsteps of someone coming into the living room. 

Amelia turned to see it was her Dad, and when they made eye contact Tony gave her a small smile. 

“You look ridiculous”, Tony said, with absolutely no malice in his voice. Amelia let out a small smile and chuckle, burrowing deeper into her blanket. 

“You’re just jealous”, she said, and Tony smiled as he walked closer to the sofa. He glanced up at the TV to see BBC America playing, and instantly knew what prompted his daughter to fashion a make-shift camp out in the living room. 

“Doctor Who?”, he asked, to which Amelia nodded at his response. Tony felt a pang suddenly, saddened at the fact that he was not camped out with his daughter to watch the show. Doctor Who used to be Amelia and Tony’s thing. It had the sci-fi elements for Tony, and the great writing and characters for Amelia. They used to snuggle up on the couch together and watch every episode, banishing Steve whenever he would join them and ask too many questions. Now here his daughter was, getting ready to enjoy it all by herself, and it was most likely due to him being a complete ass and making her not want to be around him. 

Amelia sensed the tension and sadness coming off of her Dad, and she instantly felt bad as well. She had meant what she felt earlier with Bucky, what he had understood she meant without needing her to say anything. She wanted a better relationship with her Dad, wanted to once again have what they used to. Amelia didn’t know if they would ever fully get that back, knowing there were probably going to be many times in the future they wouldn’t get along, but for tonight she missed her Dad, and she didn’t care about any stupid arguments that they may have had, no matter how recent. 

”Do you want to join me?”, Amelia asked shyly. Tony whipped his head around from his gaze at the TV to stare at his daughter, taken aback by her offer to hang out with her. 

”Are you sure? I mean…yeah, of course”, Tony said, taking a seat next to his daughter and settling in. As the theme song started playing, Amelia took the blanket off of herself and instead changed her position so that her head was lying on Tony’s chest, and moved the blanket so that it was covering both of them. She then handed Tony an Oreo as she proceeded to split one in half for herself, eyes glued to the TV. 

Tony smiled one of the biggest smiles he had in a while. He couldn’t remember the last time his daughter hugged him, especially the last time they cuddled on the couch together. Despite being a shy introvert, with the few people Amelia loved and trusted, she was a cuddler. Often times Tony would come home to see her watching TV cuddled with Steve or Peter, or even Bucky and (no one knows how she managed to ever do this), even Nat. But she had not attempted it with Tony for what seemed like years. 

Tony took a bite out of his Oreo, wrapping his arms around Amelia in the process and turning to the show, just wanting to appreciate this moment for as long as he could, hoping that it wouldn’t be the last good moment in a while and instead just the start of having them again. 


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, FYI, as we start to get into the chapter's that introduce Amelia's powers, fans of The Flash are going to notice some similarities.
> 
> Inspiration will be taken from the show regarding Amelia's powers and how she got them. 
> 
> Enjoy :)

Amelia wrapped her hands tighter around her hot mug of coffee, warming them as she shivered at the cold air. She took a sip of the addicting drink as she stared out the giant glass window of the Tower, watching as the thunder storm outside got increasingly worse.

Amelia sighed as she walked away from the window back to the kitchen, tapping the screen of her Stark phone to see if her Dad or Pops had called or texted her back to let her know when they were coming home. 

Right before the storm got worse, when it was still just a light rain, Tony and Steve got called in to a last-minute meeting from Maria Hill. They had already been gone for hours, and with Peter sticking out the storm at Ned’s house where he was earlier in the day, Amelia couldn’t help but feel a little creeped out being stuck in the Tower all by herself. 

She may be sixteen, but Amelia was feeling off and she would have very much appreciated it if her fathers could come home now. 

Just as Amelia was going to walk to the sink to place her now empty mug in there, a loud crashing sound of thunder hit right outside the window, followed by a flash of lightning, causing Amelia to scream and drop the mug, shattering into pieces as it hit the floor. 

Amelia placed her hand on her chest, feeling her rapid heart-beat pick up speed. “It’s just lightning, Stark-Rogers. Get it together!” She told herself, failing to calm herself down. Just then the power went out in the Tower, immersing Amelia in darkness, besides the small amount of light coming in from the lightning outside. 

“Great”, Amelia mumbled as she walked over to the various drawers in the kitchen trying to look for a flashlight or a glow stick. After rummaging through all the drawers and coming up short, Amelia ran her fingers through her messy blonde hair in frustration. She was now alone, in a storm, in the dark. 

Another flash of thunder and lightning went off, causing Amelia to jump once again in surprise. 

“Okay, screw this”, Amelia said as she made her way over to the elevator, taking it down to her Dad’s garage. If she was going to be alone in the Tower for one of the worse storms New York had seen in a while, she was at least going to have power for it. 

Soon enough Amelia had made it down to her Dad’s garage/lab, and as she began walking to the circuit breaker to hopefully get the generator up and running, she saw the kitchen flashlight on her Dad’s work table. Rolling her eyes, she grabbed the flashlight and turned it on, continuing to walk to the other side of the room. 

She finally made it to the circuit breaker, which was placed on the wall right next to the garage door, when she felt rain drops suddenly fall on her head. 

“What the- “Amelia said, looking up to see one of the top windows in the garage door had been smashed open through the powerful wind of the storm, causing the rain to come through. Amelia stepped forward a few paces to get a better look, however just as she was going to turn back to the circuit breaker, a flash of lightning came through the hole in the window, hitting Amelia and knocking her to the ground. 

_____________________________________________________________________________________ 

Steve watched as the storm raged on from the passenger window as Tony drove his matte black Aston Martin carefully through the rain and wind, back to the Tower. 

Steve looked down at his phone as he let out a sigh of worry, running his hard through her blonde hair. He had texted both Amelia and Peter when their meeting was over, letting them both know that he and Tony were on their way home. Peter had quickly texted him back, asking if he could just stay at Ned’s house for the night which Steve agreed to, but Amelia had not. Which was weird because all throughout the meeting, both he and Tony continuously got texts from their daughter asking them when they would be home. 

Tony turned his attention away from the ACDC he had quietly playing to his husband, frowning at the worried look Steve was giving to the screen of his phone. He pulled off one hand from the steering wheel, leaning over to lace his fingers with his husbands. Steve looked up at the contact, and Tony gave his husband a reassuring smile back. 

“Babe, I am sure she is okay”, Tony said, trying to reassure himself along with Steve. He didn’t want to let Steve know he was also kind of worried, as it would just make his husband feel worse. 

They stayed like that for the rest of the ride, holding hands and letting the sounds of the storm and the music try and distract them both. 

As Tony began to pull up to the driveway of the Tower and click the garage door opener, Steve sat up, antsy to run up to their Suite and make sure their daughter was all right. Just as Steve looked down at his seatbelt to undo it, he heard Tony gasp next to him, and turned his head to see the sight that had caused his husband to go pale and rigid. 

Right at the entrance of the garage lay their daughter, unconscious. Both men ran out of the car and over to their daughter, kneeling down next to her. 

“Ow!”, Tony yelled, pulling his hand away after he had been shocked when he tried to reach out and touch Amelia. Steve furrowed his brows at this, and looked back down at his daughter to see a scorched hole in the arm of her jacket and shirt. 

“Oh my god, Tony look”, he said, pointing to it. Tony widened his eyes, coming to the same conclusion as Steve did as to what must have happened to their daughter. 

Steve had already pulled his phone out and dialed 911, letting them know what had happened and shouting their address to the operator before hanging up. He looked down at his daughter’s chest to see it barely move, meaning that Amelia was barely breathing. 

“Tony,” Steve choked out as tears started to fall down his face. He then suddenly felt arms wrap around him as Tony pulled Steve into his arms, running his hands up and down his back. They both help each other as they heard the distant sirens in the background, praying that their daughter would be all right. 


	8. Chapter 8

*BEEP BEEP BEEP*

Amelia groaned as she slowly began to open her eyes, only to quickly close them again at the harsh lighting of the room she was in. 

After giving herself a minute to adjust, she opened her eyes again as she tried to sit up, feeling a dull pain radiate throughout her entire body as she did so. When she was finally able to sit up enough to take in her surroundings, she saw that she was in a hospital room hooked up to an IV and machines. 

As she turned her head to the left towards the window, she saw her Dad slumped down on an uncomfortable looking chair, asleep. Amelia took in the features of her Dad and noticed the greasy hair, dark bags under his eyes, and the shadow of facial hair he usually has nicely trimmed. 

As she tried to remember everything that happened, her head began pounding, fighting against the sudden use after being knocked out. She then heard the sound of footsteps enter the room, and looked up to see a young, brunette nurse walk in with a clipboard. When the nurse looked up and saw Amelia staring back at her, her eyes widened and she yelled out into the hallway for the doctor. 

The sudden noise caused Tony to jolt awake, taking in his daughter sitting up and awake the moment he did. “Amelia,” Tony yelled, reaching to pull his daughter in a hug without second thought. 

“Ow”, Amelia whispered as her Dad crushed her in a tight hug. Tony jumped back, afraid of hurting his daughter any more than she already was. 

“Sorry”, Tony mumbled, feeling excitement and antsy now that his daughter was awake. “Oh, I need to call your Pops!” he said, grabbing his phone and dialing Steve’s number. 

Amelia turned away from her Dad making the call to her Pops, noticing the doctor walk in and give her a warm smile. She just gave him a blank stare back, still slightly confused as to what was going on. The last thing she could remember was staring up at the broken window on the garage door, and now she is waking up in a hospital room with a paranoid Tony Stark-Rogers. 

“How are you feeling, Ms. Stark-Rogers?”, the doctor asked, checking her chart and turning to the machine to look at whatever the hell it was telling him. How was she feeling? How the fuck was Amelia supposed to answer that question? 

“Uh…”, Amelia said as she tried to find the words before she heard the sound of her Pops running into the room. “Amelia!”, Steve yelled, making his way over to the side of her bed that Tony stood on and pulling her into a hug that was more painful than Tony’s. 

“Ah, ah be gentle there Cap,” Tony said, pulling Steve off of their daughter, which Amelia was grateful for. Amelia gave her Dad a relieved smile and watched as Tony placed his arm around Steve’s waist to try and keep his over-excited husband in place. 

“Can I ask… what happened?”, Amelia asked to all three men in the room, only to be met with three surprised faces. 

“You don’t remember?”, the doctor asked, concern written on his features. Amelia just shook her head no, wishing that someone would just give her some damn answers as to why she was in the hospital. 

“Well, Ms. Stark-Rogers, you were struck by lightning during the storm three days ago and have been unconscious ever since.” 

Amelia widened her eyes at this, as the memory of seeing the lightning come through the garage window came back to her. She turned back to her fathers to give them both a shocked look, and received two sympathetic and worried stares back. Steve stepped forward and placed a hand on his daughter’s shoulder, giving it a light but comforting squeeze. 

“But she is going to be okay?”, Steve asked, and Amelia turned back to the doctor as she was just as anxious for the answer as them. 

“Well now that Amelia has woken up we would like to perform a few more tests, just to be sure there is no lasting damage done. But from the looks of the results from the tests we have already been able to run, Amelia will be just fine. She can be released later today after we complete the last few tests.” 

With that the doctor left the room to give the family some privacy, and Amelia closed her eyes in disbelief. When she felt a warm hand on her cheek, she looked up to see her Pop’s looking at her as he caressed her cheek. 

“I am so glad you are okay, little girl. You have no idea how scared we both were”. 

Amelia smiled at her Pop’s words, happy that she woke up to have her family with her. She remembered the feeling of being in the Tower alone during the storm, and now all she wanted was to be near both her fathers, and her little brother as well. 

“Where’s Peter?”, Amelia asked. 

“Bucky and Sam are on their way over, and they are bringing Pete”, Steve said, looking down at his phone as he got a text. “And it looks like Nat is coming home too, said she should be over at the Tower around 8 tonight.” 

Amelia nodded, surprised that her Aunt Nat was cutting her current mission short. Ever since she had been heart broken by Bruce, Nat did everything in her power to keep herself busy with missions from SHIELD after they built themselves back up with Maria at the helm. She hadn’t seen much of her Aunt Nat in the last five months, and was happy that she was going to get to see her tonight. 

“Amelia!” 

The sound of Peter yelling his sister’s name caused all three Stark-Rogers to turn their heads towards the door, Peter running in at top speed. Just as he was about to jump on the hospital bed and nearly attack his sister with a hug, Bucky ran in and swooped Peter up with ease, holding the wiggling child against his chest. Sam walked in right after, laughing at the scene before him. 

“Oh no you don’t, kiddo”, Bucky said. “Now what did me and your Uncle Sam tell you in the car just now?” 

“Don’t run, and don’t alarm Amelia”, Peter mumbled, knowing he did the exact opposite of what his uncles instructed him to do. 

“Oh that’s odd”, Sam said, giving Bucky a put-on confused look for show. “Because wouldn’t you say that is exactly what he did, Buck?” 

“I would say so Sam, I would”, Bucky said, putting a now quiet Peter down to allow him to gently hug his sister. When Peter was done, Amelia tapped the side of her bed and Bucky helped Peter up, watching as he got situated to sit next to his sister. Bucky and Sam had agreed to watch Peter the last three days that Amelia had been out, and the kid had been a nervous wreck worrying about his sister the entire time. Bucky smiled as Amelia whispered something in Peter’s ear, causing him to giggle, as his nephew looked happy for the first time in days. 

_________________________________________________________ 

After a few more hours taking tests and waiting for the results, Amelia was finally released from the hospital and had a nice dinner at home with her fathers, brother, uncles, and her favorite Aunt, Natasha. They had even gotten Amelia’s favorite Chinese take-out place and also got her favorite type of ice cream, Phish Food. 

Amelia sighed as she stood out on the balcony from her bedroom, leaning against the thick railing and looking out into the city. She felt a presence next to her and turned to see Natasha, who also leaned against the railing to look out with her. 

“It’s nice being back in the city”, Natasha said, taking in the home that she barely saw anymore. After the incident with Thanos and her awkward reunion with Bruce, the genius had finally decided to stop running away and give their relationship a chance. And it had gone well, for about four years. Until one incident with the Hulk happened, causing Bruce to pick up and leave her again, unfortunately this time for good. Ever since then, Natasha spent most of her time busying herself with missions and work, only taking time off to visit the only family she had in the gang in New York, and Clint. 

“That’s surprising, seeing as you haven’t been around much at all. I was beginning to think you were avoiding us”, Amelia said, no real malice in her voice. As she got older her Aunt Nat had been more open with her about the things that had happened in her life, and Amelia might not understand what she felt every time she came back to New York, but she could at least respect it. 

“You are so Tony’s daughter!”, Nat said, smirking at Amelia’s comment. 

“Oh God, don’t ruin the mood”, Amelia said, causing both to laugh. Once the laughter died down both girls stared back at the city, Amelia’s mood instantly going back to serious as her thoughts came back to her. 

“What’s wrong котенок?” 

“It’s just,” Amelia sighed, running her hand through her hair, “I don’t know, I feel like something happened to me when I got hit by that lightning. I can still feel the pain of it coursing through my body when it hit me. I mean, how did I just walk away from that completely fine?” 

Natasha frowned at her niece’s words, seeing the distress on her face. “I don’t know how you survived that with only a long, deep sleep as a consequence. But whatever happened to keep you safe, I can only be so thankful it did and that I was coming home to a reunion and not something worse.” 

Amelia nodded, still not quite feeling herself and like everything was not just okay, but not wanting to push the subject anymore. She was just happy to be home, happy she was here with her family, and determined to push any other thoughts out of her head for another time. 

Natasha smiled as she wrapped her arms around Amelia, guiding her back in the house and towards the living room where the rest of the group was. 

“Come on, котенок. Let’s go annoy the hell out of your Dad while I’m still here.” 

Amelia laughed and followed her aunt, ignoring the jolt of electricity she could have sworn she just felt run down her spine. 


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for the very very late update! I will try and do a WAY better job at updating this from now on. Thank you to everyone for your patience. Enjoy!

Amelia groaned, rubbing at her temples, as she tried to drone out the loud noise of her classmates on the bus. They were all on their way to a mandatory field trip, and even though they had only been on the bus for close to twenty minutes now, Amelia could feel a headache already forming.

  
While it may be easy to assume otherwise, being the child of Iron Man and Captain America was not a cool factor in high school. Her last name and family status tended to intimidate people, and her fathers’ public behavior in the past didn’t quite help either. Combined with the fact that Amelia tended to be on the introverted side, it wasn’t easy for her to make friends.

  
Sighing, Amelia looked out the window of the bus, hoping they would arrive to their destination soon. Time seemed to move at a very slow pace, but finally the bus came to a stop, and the students were all led to line up at the entrance of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

  
As they waited, Amelia felt her phone buzz in her pocket. She pulled it out to see a text from Bucky, and almost laughed out loud when she opened it to find a selfie of Bucky, making the most un-flattering face possible. She quickly texted back a simple message of ‘double chin’ and closed her phone, as the kids in front of her started to walk towards the building.

_______________

“Stark-Rogers!”  
Amelia sighed as she turned toward the shrill voice of her teacher, to see that she was waving her over as one of the many bitchy popular girls, Jaeden, stood next to her and rolled her eyes.  
“Yes?” Amelia asked as she reached them, so over the day and ready to go home.  
“Escort Jaeden to the restroom, and then report back here immediately” her teacher barked, half-focused on the other students around them.  
“I told you, I don’t need to be escorted” Jaeden said, stomping her foot on the ground.  
“Jaeden, you will have Amelia go with you, or you won’t go at all!”  
Jaeden let out a frustrated noise, and sped walked past her towards the exit of the room their class was in. Amelia walked past her teacher as she followed Jaeden, quickly realizing that Jaeden was not going in the direction of the restrooms.  
“Um… where are you going?” Amelia asked Jaeden as she followed her down the front steps at the entrance to the museum. She didn’t bother to mention the fact that the restrooms definitely weren’t outside, as it was obvious that was never Jaeden’s true destination.  
“Ugh, just go back inside weirdo” Jaeden said, pulling out her phone and beginning to text someone as she looked around.  
Amelia stopped to stand next to her, putting two and two together as to what Jaeden was up to. She might not be able to keep up with her dad and brother, but she also wasn’t an idiot.  
“Who are you meeting out here?”  
“None of your business!”  
“Actually, thanks to Miss Heathers, it is. I’m really not in the mood to get in trouble because of you and have her on my ass.”  
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Jaeden snottily said as she finally looked up from her phone. “Are you not used to people fawning all over you? Surprised there are people out there who don’t care who your daddies are?”  
Amelia crossed her arms in frustration, trying to not let Jaeden’s words get to her. Her whole life people had assumed they knew her just because of her last name. And they always assumed the worst. Whether it was jealousy, intimidation, or hate, most people did not take lightly to her after learning who her family was.  
The other side wasn’t much better. Some people would suck up to her, thinking they could benefit off of her friendship, as well.  
The result left Amelia to be a very distrusting person, which was why she tended to just stick to her family and stay distant with everyone else.  
Was it sad that her best friends were her brother and uncle?  
Amelia’s mind wandered as she pondered these thoughts, forgetting that Jaeden was texting away obviously waiting for some guy to meet up with her.  
Not a moment later did Amelia hear what she knew to be gun shots ring out, bringing her back to reality. A sensation vibrated through Amelia’s body, and suddenly she felt as if time were going in slow motion. She turned her head to see a bullet coming for their general direction. Amelia followed with her eyes where the bullet was heading, and saw it was going to struck Jaeden.  
Without even mentally or emotionally reacting, her body sped at top speed towards Jaeden, closing the few feet of space between them and pushing her towards the ground as she felt the air of the bullet fly past them and barely miss.  
Time seemed to jump back into normal pace when they both hit the ground. Amelia let out a grunt of pain as her body collided with the concrete, trying to fully keep up with what just happened. Her body tingled with little currents of electricity, and she felt a natural high of adrenaline course through her.  
Suddenly remembering the presence next to her, Amelia turned her head to see her shocked and frightened class mate staring at her with wide eyes.  
“What the hell happened?”  
Amelia didn’t answer as she looked up to see the rest of the crowd all either running away, or on the ground with their arms covering their heads. She saw up ahead that security had already apprehended the shooter, luckily with what looked like to be zero causalities.  
She turned back to Jaeden to try and make sure she didn’t see anything. Instead she found a very shaken up girl who had lost all the confidence she just had a minute ago.  
“Are you okay?” Amelia asked as she got up and extended her hand to the other girl. Surprisingly Jaeden took it and stood close to Amelia as they observed the chaos around them. They stood close, not knowing what to do, both shaking with fear as the reality of what just happened finally hit them.

______________________

“Amelia!”  
Amelia’s head snapped up from where she was sitting on the front steps of the museum as she heard her name being called out, and instantly ran towards the voice when she recognized it to be her Pop’s.  
Meeting halfway, they embraced, and Amelia let out a light wince as the power of Steve’s hug was just a tad uncomfortable. But she couldn’t really care less at the moment. She hugged her Pops back with just as much force, not wanting to let go anytime soon.  
Eventually they did pull away from one another, and Steve focused his attention on giving her a once over, checking to make sure she was unharmed. Amelia could feel the stares of the crowd around her, ignoring them as best as she could.  
“The school called and said what happened. God Amelia, are you trying to test my health? One more scare from you and I think I just may have a heart attack”.  
Amelia let out a strained laugh, relaxation slowly setting in now that her Pops was here.  
“Where’s Dad?” Amelia asked, straining her neck to look around him. She was actually super anxious to see her Dad, and wished he was there as well.  
“He’s back at the Tower with Peter. I made him stay home because I didn’t want to bring your brother here. Speaking of your dad and brother, let’s go home. I know your Dad is probably pulling his hair out with worry”.  
“No, he would never ruin his pride and joy. But yes, please take me home”.  
Steve smiled down at his daughter, putting his arms around her and leading her to his car, never wanting to let go.

___________________

The next day at school Amelia scanned the hallway, looking for a certain brunette cheerleader.  
When she finally spotted Jaeden texting at her locker, she sped over, clearing her throat to get the girls attention.  
Jaeden looked up and her eyes widened in surprise for a quick moment, before quickly cooling her expression and feigning one of annoyance.  
“What do you want?” Jaeden asked.  
“I need to talk to you” Amelia asked.  
Jaeden looked at her as if that was the last thing she wanted to do, and slammed her locker door shut, catching Amelia by surprise.  
“No thank you”, she said as she began to walk away. Amelia walked after her, careful to keep her pace slow and steady. She could not have a repeat of yesterday.  
“Please, Jaeden, I just need to ask you something.”  
Jaeden ignored her and started up the steps to the second floor. When they reached the top of the stairs Amelia grew frustrated, and grabbed Jaeden’s arms into the restroom, despite the other girl’s protest.  
The bell rang to indicate their class period had started, and Amelia sighed in relief knowing that they should be left alone as everyone had filed into their classrooms.  
“Let me go! Ugh, what do you want?” Jaeden said as the restroom door closed behind them.  
“I just,” Amelia started, not quite sure how to word her question. She needed to make sure that Jaeden hadn’t noticed the super speed that Amelia had moved at yesterday. Luckily, she was almost positive in the chaos no one else had been looking in their direction, but she wasn’t so sure her classmate hadn’t noticed the strange phenomenon that took place.  
“I just…wanted to make sure you were okay”, Amelia finally said, not wanting to give away what she really wanted to know in case the girl hadn’t seen anything.  
“Why do you care? Its not like were friends, or anything” Jaeden said.  
“Well, because it was scary. I just wanted to see if you needed anything, or…. I don’t know, wanted to talk about it?” Amelia said.  
Surprisingly Jaeden’s face softened at that, and the tension on her body slightly relaxed.  
“Yeah, it was scary, huh?”  
Amelia nodded in agreement, the feelings from yesterday quickly coming back to her. A shiver ran up her body, and she suddenly felt very nervous.  
“Thank you, by the way” Jaeden said.  
Amelia froze, afraid of what Jaeden was thanking her for.  
“You pushed me out of the way, and probably saved my life. So…thanks”.  
Amelia paused, not quite sure what to say next. If she pushed the matter, it might make things worse. So, she decided to take a leap of faith and trust that Jaeden hadn’t noticed how fast she actually moved when she pushed her out of the way, and to let it go.  
“Yeah, of course. You’re welcome” Amelia answered.  
A moment of silence passed between them, almost connecting them from their shared experience.  
“Well, I need to get to class” Jaeden said, breaking the silence.  
“Yeah, me too” Amelia said, walking out of the restroom after Jaeden. They walked down the hallway together before pausing at the end, each girl needing to head in the opposite direction for class.  
They both paused and stared at one another, feeling a slight comfort in knowing someone else felt the same fear.  
Jaeden gave a slight nod to Amelia, a small smile on her lips, before turning away and heading to class.  
Amelia did the same, hoping that for once everything worked out for her and her trust in someone didn’t bite her in the ass.  
She didn’t want anybody to know what happened to her yesterday, afraid of the answer herself. And if Jaeden did see something, well she hoped the girl could keep her secret to herself.  
She did save the girls life, after all.


	10. Chapter 10

Something weird was happening to Amelia.  
And while weird was a huge understatement, weird was all Amelia could handle at the moment.  
She knew whatever had been happening to her ever since the incident at the museum was not only weird, but also flat out terrifying and she didn’t know what to do.  
Deep down she knew she needed to tell her fathers. If not even her fathers, at least somebody. She had a whole family of people who spent their lives dealing with the abnormal and unpredictable, but for some reason she just felt a pit in her stomach anytime she thought about telling someone.  
Amelia knew that once she told someone, once anyone knew what was happening to her, it would become real. If what was happening to her was anything like what happened to Bruce, her Pop’s, Wanda… she knew that her life would forever be changed.  
But she also knew that what was happening to her could be dangerous, or even fatal, if she didn’t get it figured out.  
So, baby steps. That is what Amelia decided she would do. She wouldn’t try and ignore the situation, but she also would try and figure out as much as she could on her own before she told anyone.  
That is how Amelia found herself behind an abandoned building about forty minutes away from her school, in the middle of the day, after ditching when her Pop’s dropped her off.  
She knew doing any theory testing would be best at night, in the dark, but it was also impossible to sneak out of the Tower. Not only were there at least 2 security guards, and 2 doormen working on the ground floor entrance at all times, but her fathers had little spies all over the house consisting of Tony’s AI and bots.  
The Tower was a fortress, and Amelia often felt trapped. She knew if she were to keep this a secret, she would need to find a time where she would already be out of the Tower to try and figure this out.  
Amelia glanced around again, trying to make sure no one was around. She had taken a cab out of the city, trying to find a neighborhood that wasn’t too busy mid-day. Of course, that was very difficult for New York, but she eventually landed on a neighborhood that had an abandoned business park, with an alley that couldn’t be seen from the road.  
Amelia took a few deep breaths, tightening the ponytail on her head before getting into a running pose. She stared intently at the end of the alley and focused her mind on getting there as fast as possible.  
She hadn’t tried to make her “powers” come out herself yet, only having experienced them so far from accidents and them having a mind of her own. She didn’t know if they would just happen naturally, or if she had to do something specific, so she just tried to stay as focused as possible, despite being incredibly nervous.  
Closing her eyes, Amelia took a deep breath and quickly opened them as she started to run. She ran as fast as she could, pushing herself harder and harder. However, before anything happened she was stopping herself from running into the wall at the end, letting out a frustrated groan.  
Giving herself only a few seconds to catch her breath, she started again. She went back and forth for what felt life forever, refusing her stop until she got some sort of reaction.  
Amelia felt like she got to the multiple mile point before she finally felt a spark in her left leg, and before she knew it she was speeding through the air, her legs going faster than her mind could keep up with.  
She crashed into the wall, not knowing how to stop her body from moving at such a great speed and hissed in slight pain as her knee scraped against the concrete, breaking the skin and causing it to start slightly bleeding.  
She rubbed her hand lightly over her knee, barely paying any attention to the injury and instead focused on the fact that her speed finally made an appearance.  
She had been dealing with random bouts of speed for weeks. She would find herself walking across her bedroom, and randomly being propelled forward by her own feet. Or going to reach for a glass and causing it to fall and shatter to the ground after losing control of how fast her arm went to grab it.  
She knew whatever was happening was getting stronger. As the weeks went by, the issue become worse and worse and Amelia had to figure out to control it before someone finally noticed.  
Smiling, she kept on doing laps in the back alleyway, her super speed getting faster and faster with every lap. Finally, Amelia started to feel tired, and stopped running, grabbing the water on her backpack and taking multiple sips.  
She knew that normally she would have gotten a lot more tired, a lot earlier than she did. Yes, she worked out and trained but she was nowhere near in shape enough to be able to run what was probably over 5 miles at top speed, and not get tired and worn out till the very end.  
She would need to keep running, keep pushing her limits to see exactly how powerful her speed was. But for now, she grabbed her bag and started calling an Uber, a smile on her face as she decided to call it a night and take the small victory.

_________________________________________________________

The sound of silverware scraping across dishes mixed with chatter filled dining room as the Stark-Rogers’ ate dinner.  
Peter and Tony were laughing as they discussed something they had been doing in the lab, when Steve looked over to his daughter and noticed her taking small bites as she looked down at her plate. Steve couldn’t tell if she looked upset, or just distracted, but he frowned at the expression on her face and turned his attention towards Amelia.  
“So…Amelia, anything happen at school these last few days?”  
Amelia looked up from her plate, confused expression on her face as she was pulled out of her thoughts.  
“Huh? Oh… uh no. Just same old, same old.” Amelia said, looking back down at her food.  
She didn’t see her Pops give a slight nod, before sharing a look with Tony. Steve continued to try and signal Tony with a look, hoping he would get what Steve was trying to tell him.  
Instead Tony just stared at his husband like he had grown an extra head, until finally he became annoyed and exclaimed loudly, “Okay, babe what the fuck are you doing?”  
Amelia looked up from her plate again, looking back and forth between her fathers at the weird exchange. When neither of them said anything, and Steve gave her a slight smile, she looked back down, pushing the food around between taking small bites.  
Steve turned his head from his daughter back to his husband, his smile turning into an annoyed glare. Peter just kept looking back and forth between Steve and Tony, completely confused at the silent conversation happening between his fathers. Or at least, attempting to happen on Steve’s end.  
Finally, Steve just looked at Tony and mouthed ‘talk to her’ while gesturing towards Amelia.  
Tony looked over at Amelia, saw what Steve was talking about, and mouthed a big “oh” expression towards his husband as he winked and gave him thumbs up. Steve just rolled his eyes but couldn’t help the slight smile that appeared on his face at the ridiculousness of his husband.  
“Amelia!” Tony loudly exclaimed, causing her to jump and look abruptly at him. “How has the after-school tutoring been going?”  
It took Amelia a moment to answer, and she knew it was a moment too long by the look on her dad’s face. She momentarily forgot that the after-school “training” she had been doing to test her speed was under the rouse that she had become a tutor for extra credit.  
“Oh, um…. Yeah, it’s going good.” She finally said when her mind started to process the question.  
“Mm-hmmm” Tony said as he eyed his daughter. He could always tell (for the most part) when one of his kids was lying. And he knew Amelia was most definitely lying.

________________________________________________________________

“We need to find out what Amelia’s really doing after school”.  
Steve looked over at his husband as he un-buttoned his shirt, and saw that Tony was pulling back the duvet on their bed as they prepared to go to sleep.  
“What do you mean?”  
“What do you mean, ‘what do I mean’? It’s obvious she is lying about what she is doing after school. And we need to find out why”.  
Steve stopped as he got to his side of the bed and gave it a good thought. He was ready to instantly disagree with Tony, stating that their daughter was just a normal teenager, going through normal teenage things.  
But Amelia wasn’t a normal teenager. Besides her rocky relationship with Tony, she didn’t keep things from them or be distant, or have awful teen angst mood swings. But ever since her accident, she tended to keep to herself and wasn’t as talkative as usual.  
Steve looked up at Tony and gave his husband a worried look.  
“What do you think it is?”  
“Well,” Tony said, getting in to bed and patting the spot next to him until Steve joined him, “it could be a number of things”.  
Steve’s eyes suddenly became wide as a thought had come to him.  
“Do you think she has a boyfriend? Tony, what if they’re you know…. having sex”. Steve mumbled the last part, not ready to start worrying about his children doing…. that.  
Tony couldn’t help but start to laugh, and when Steve gave him an offended look he grabbed his husband’s face and gave him a soft kiss, still slightly chuckling as he did so.  
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry babe but… come on. I mean, yes, we do make some beautiful babies and Amelia is a gorgeous girl… but at the same time our daughter has the social skills of a gnat when it comes to people outside this family. I’m pretty sure she’s not dating anyone”.  
“Tony!” Steve scolded, slightly hitting him in the arm before leaning on it, “don’t say that!”  
“I’m sorry, but it’s true. My point though… no I don’t think that is the issue here”.  
“Then what is?”  
Steve patiently waited as he heard Tony sigh next to him and take his time to respond. He could feel the tension radiating off of his husband, and it only made him more worried.  
“I think…. maybe…. she might be on drugs?”  
Steve’s head popped up at that, completely taken off guard at Tony’s response. Of all the things he thought he might say, drugs were not one of them.  
“Are you sure?”, he asked Tony.  
Tony looked at Steve and gave a light nod, “I mean, yeah maybe. She has been super distant, going to her room almost immediately after getting home and after we force her out for dinner, which she barely eats by the way… and let’s just put aside the lack of conversation with us, she hasn’t even been spending that much time with Peter!”  
Steve did nod at that, realizing that there were a lot of signs that something was going on with their little girl.  
“But drugs?”, he asked, not wanting to just accept that that’s what Amelia had been doing so easily.  
“Well, think about it too, babe. She is a Stark. Addiction is in her blood”.  
Steve looked over at Tony and took in the pained expression on his face. He knew that even thinking that may be what is going on with Amelia killed Tony, as Tony’s biggest fear was either of their kids inheriting his faults.  
Tony loved being a father and loved his two kids more than anything. But he also knew as a dad, he came with a ton of baggage. Baggage that his kids should never have to deal with or have of their own. He really hoped that Amelia wasn’t starting to experiment with drugs or get into any sort of trouble. She was so much better than that.  
…So much better than him.  
“Hey!”  
Tony looked up at the sternness in Steve’s voice, and allowed himself to be pulled into his husbands strong, warm arms. He wrapped his arms around Steve’s waist, shoving his face in the crook of his neck and taking in the amazing scent that was Steve.  
“Sweetheart, please don’t get all worked up”, Steve said as he rubbed Tony’s back. “We will talk to her tomorrow, after school, and get this all figured out. Okay? I am sure it is nothing serious”.  
Tony nodded at his husband’s words, wanting so badly to believe them. After a few minutes he felt Steve pulling away, and let his husband separate them at arms-length.  
Steve gave Tony a stern look. He knew Tony was upset, but he also knew what Tony could get up to when he was upset.  
“Tony, promise me you will not follow or spy on our daughter!”  
“Steve”, Tony sighed, being cut off by Steve immediately after that.  
“No, I’m serious. Like I said, we will sit down and talk with her tomorrow afternoon. But until then, no spying! Got it?”  
Tony nodded along, too tired to say anything back. When Steve accepted Tony’s nod, he turned out the light on the lamp beside him and laid down, pulling Tony into his side as he did so.  
As Tony fell asleep, he decided that while he wouldn’t spy on Amelia, he would just make a short phone call to her school. I mean, he never got the details of this tutoring program she had signed up for. That wasn’t spying it was just… thorough parenting.


End file.
